Sci Fi Funk Episode 8 Preview thread.
Sci Fi Funk
Posts: 1,197
It's getting closer!
We are rendering now (at a snails pace), but the lighting is ready, the basic animation complete (just tweaking the scenes as we go).
Wrote this part of the script in April 2010. Had to wait until now to see it. I've shared the journey to this point in a series of tutorials should you wish to tread my low poly - large scene path.
Going to try to do an offline-online (youtube) party at launch time which I estimate to be late November this year (2013).
I've been saying November (offline) for the last two years and not made it (ha ha), but now we are really on the final lap.
A preview pic. Will send out a few more but don't want to spoil it too much.
Follow the progress at http://www.facebook.com/scififunk
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Comments
Back at the start of September I was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, now we are in november and episode 8 edges closer at the rate of 2 seconds per day on average.
Here is part of a frame which will appear towards the end of section 2 (there are 4 sections in this mega set I've spent 2.5 years building).
All comments welcome, and yes I am aware that I need to sort out the blur on the lamppost (to get rid of the unwanted fuzziness around it).
I desperately hope this will be on youtube by the end of the year.
Congrats! Can't wait to see it!
It's beautiful! I can't wait either!
Well, figure of speech, of course. I'll wait.
Thanks guys.
We are getting there. If Carrara can get the network rendering bug fixed for volumetric lighting (I have an approved bug fix raised), I could get there twice as fast!
Instead progress is being made on episodes 9 and 10 whilst we wait ...
so lets see - you have 6 more years of work then ?
hope you get it done on time ;-)
I have been working on my 15 minutes movie for maybe 10 months now. I have made tests renders of all scenes in 640X360 format. I don't use Global illumination or soft shadows or anything like that. Sets are stripped to the minimum. I am in the process of rendering hi-rez (1920X1080) now and it looks like it's going to take 2 months at 24 hours a day. That's a real looooong time!
Too long. I've tried my own network rendering in the past. Too many variables and impediments. It doesn't work for me. I believe, for my next movie, I'm going to use a professional network rendering service.
Absolutely. The bane of the home animation enthusiast! It was interesting watching the special feature discs for what Weta Digital had to go through to meet certain deadlines for LotR movies. Quickly upgrade a whole pile and add a whole lot more! Talk about cost, eh?
These are my main reasons for my images often looking a little different - not so realistic - I'm experimenting with different visuals to speed up my renders and yet satisfying what I want to get out of my animations.
Of course, going for photo-real is going for photo-real. All I can say there is that, I totally agree with evilproducer in that, it's very helpful to perform blurs and focal edits in post. These things can ad a lot of render time to Carrara.
I'm assuming you have already considered and ruled out breaking up the rendering process along timelines (e.g., in 2 minute chunks), distributing the rendering to different computers to emulate network farms, and then splicing the results together later.
Can I inquire why that approach doesn't work? I've been using that method since I discovered render nodes have been trashed in C8.5. I'm asking mostly because maybe there's a problem I don't foresee.
Thanks!
I am not familiar with "breaking up the rendering process along timelines". What I tried is with render nodes in Carrara 8.1. I had a main computer with two older ones (16 cores in all). I got the network rendering process working for a while until, for some reason (maybe a file was missing or something), one computer stopped. I re-started it until another computer stopped for another reason (maybe that computer was just too old). I found out that I had to be vigilant to the point of not being able to do anything else. It took too much of my time getting all the files in sync for all my computers for network rendering to be worthwhile. For me, a professional rendering farm with all similar new computers is worth the price at this time.
Once the file is saved, you can set it up in the Batch Queue how much that queue instance should render by entering the time in the output tab. That way you may set up shorter renders, and more of them, while having the benefit of being able to just save one, continuous animation in the scene.
This technique, especially using multiple cameras, is a good way to set up for many different clips of the same thing going on - as each queue may use entirely different render settings.
You can take this one step further and have different computers run portions of the batch queue. That is what I meant by running parallel processing without using render nodes. It is nearly as fast once you have each computer set up to run their portions of the batch. I guess the other assumption I am making is that if you are attempting to run render nodes that you have access to more than one computer to process your animation.
Just a thought.
BTW, Steve, the images you've posted here look super awesome. You are clearly stretching Carrara to its limits! Very well done!
Argus, another workaround might be to consider rendering to 1280x720. It is still HD, but the difference in render time would be geometric.
You could always save the scenes and re-render them at 1080p "someday"…. 720p is very good for web delivery. It allows you to keep the image quality quite clean while still streaming at an acceptable speed
There is also the old classic "render 15fps", which imho is not a good idea but it would cut your render time in half. 24fps is more common than one might think.
Yes, Holly, I almost regret not having done that. But I rendered half my scenes already in 1920X1080 now. It's too late... but, OTOH, scenes at that resolution, provided I'm still alive when they finish rendering, look damn good!
Thanks Fractal.
To address your point of splitting up the render by machine. I've been there in the past and this is a perfectly valid approach.
However *sometimes* results are different between computers. Then there is the issue of keeping my (constantly changing) run time up to date between computers. I have 3 pcs in total. The other two added together are as fast as my main machine.
It's also not good for a man to multi-task. It is grey hair inducing!!
So, as I can squeeze a modelling session, or scene set up session out of a separate instance of Carrara (with slow response times as the machine renders in the background), I've decided it is better to prepare future episodes on the same machine and accept my fate.
As I said earlier, if they fix the volumetric lights over the network - I'm there. I still use 8.1 (I have 8.5), but I trust 8.1 more over a network. It only has a few bugs in this respect. (Plenty of non-network bugs though but don't get me started).
Yes. This was my approach until started making test frames in 1080p.
I agree with the "someday" sentiment. Life is too short, and by being stubborn in 1080p I'm watching months drip away to get this thing rendered.
However! Once you see your scene which you've sweated over for many months look sooo much better at 1080p, it is impossible to go back to 720p, which starts to look like a postage stamp.
When I started 3d, (just before christmas 2009) I wanted to create scenes that I could live in. I'm still wanting to render out at full cinematic quality, but that really is a complete pipe dream (as you say- for now).
You probably know this, but just in case, you can resolve the slow response time while running Carrara in the background by lowering the priority. You can do that by bringing up the Windows Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL), go to Processes tab, right click "Carrara" and set the priority to "Below Normal." It will have negligible effect on render time (in most cases).
I'm not holding out the node problem will be fixed before C9. =(
Besides, "men can't multi-task." ;-)
Thanks Fractal. Although I do know about this from my I.T. days - I'd forgotten!
Can I adjust it for a while (say if I'm busy modelling), then up it again when I'm done? Or is it a one shot deal when you start a program?
You can alter the priority at any time, as often as you would like. I will often boost the priority above normal when I go to bed. Just be aware when you do this that when you come back, it can take a few minutes for your computer to respond. Carrara is a CPU vampire. :)
Many thanks Fractal - I've now included this into my rendering strategy.
Pic #3.
This is rendered with no post, no DOF. FYI.
Note we are on the cusp of "The new City" (top right). Outside the city walls people live in poverty. However, they are still allowed in every day to perform menial tasks.
Some try to stay without a City pass. Bad move.
A dramatic last few days!
The highs of being able to use the network for rendering again (don't need volumetric lighting for the last bit), then 3 scenes from completion - PC BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH.
1 1/2 days later and I'm pretty sure it was an over heating problem. Sorted now. (Been ok for 5 hours).
Anyway to celebrate here is the Entrance to Gansill Towers. You ain't gettin' past those doors without a pass (sir).
good to hear you are able to keep working !
Thanks Bigh - yes I confim that it was an overheating issue. Beware anyone entering the GPU rendering arena - you might want to up your fan output.
Update. I started post production today. All rendering finally done. 4 months of 24 hour rendering.
I'm hoping people will be interested in how the scene is put together (I'll do several tutorials), because it is a huge scene.
I look forward to both the scene and the tutorials! Thanks for taking the time to put all this together, Steve. :)
Hello to anyone who is interested.
I'm beginning to think Episode 8 will be ready SOMETIME NEXT WEEK!
I can't wait! 13 hour days since the summer and a campaign that started in May 2011 to see this set come to life.
The future is almost upon us.
:D
:wow: EXCITING!
How about leaking some frames?
Congrats! Looking forward to it.
Awesome news!!!! :ahhh: